


Night Terrors

by infinitemoths



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Maternal Instinct, Nightmares, Other, kes/shara/leia are an ot3, mild gal pal mention, this is probably gonna hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-19 20:46:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5980515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitemoths/pseuds/infinitemoths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sith torture is nothing he had ever experienced, and nothing he could ever forget.  Like a child, he finds himself crawling into his mother's bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Terrors

It wasn’t quite like any dream he’d ever had before, it was dark, and real, and painful.  It started with an incredible pain, a burning spear right between his eyes and straight out the back of his head.  And it just wouldn’t stop.  The pain built up like a pressure, becoming more and more intense as his body outside the dream curled tight into a ball, making the most pathetic noises he could imagine and clutching his head like it could explode any minute.  Then it did.  It felt hot, like a burn behind his eyes before he swore he could hear a crack in his skull, and everything went white.

At least for a moment.

Poe woke up, his chest heaving and his whole body aching, latching onto the cool pillow a few inches away from him as though his life depended on it.  It still hurt, everything still hurt and he couldn’t stop any of the tears from falling as he hid them quickly in the sheets.  Since his capture, since the interrogation with Kylo Ren, he really hadn’t been sleeping the same. 

And he was alone.  Damn, was he alone.  He didn’t have anyone he could tell this to, there was no way he could even describe it.  His night terrors weren’t images, they were full feelings.  Full, indescribable, painful feelings.  He shuddered at the mere thought of even trying to remember, finally pulling himself out of his bunk and letting his feet touch the cold, metal floor of the base.  It was a shock to his burning, trembling body, but it wasn’t a bad kind of shock.  He just needed away, he needed to walk, or run, or literally fly away from his feelings.

It was obvious that the more he ignored them, the worse they would get.  The more he chose to ignore any help from Finn, or Rey, or General Organa, or really anyone else who could have experienced similar, the worse the nightmares would become; the worse he would become.

Poe was surprised when his feet didn’t produce steam against the cold metal floor as he took his walk around the base.  No one else seemed to be awake, it seemed he had these endless hallways to himself just to be alone, and to think, to calm himself down and keep his heart rate steady.

“That’s what he wants, you know,”

The voice brought another cold shock to Poe’s system, an obviously older, wiser female voice.  “General, my apologies, I’ll… I’ll go back to my quarters,” he nearly sulked like a child told he was out past bedtime, and in a way he was, but General Organa stopped him with one hand on his shoulder.

She was always so maternal, wise and kind and sad beyond her years, and it always made him feel safer.  Back on Yavin IV, his father told stories about her and his mother, about how close they were and how radiant the two could be, and how kind they treated anyone who deserved it.  And, Kes had said, way back when Poe could remember making A-wings out of sticks and wishing he could be an amazing pilot like his mother one day, that a little bit of his mother never quite left Leia.  That there was more Shara Bey in Leia Organa than there was in Kes Dameron. 

In that moment, he believed it.  Poe crumbled against her smaller frame, holding her tight enough to snap her in half if she hadn’t been stronger than he could ever imagine.  The tears came back, and he found himself accidentally wetting the general with tears and his sweat-drenched nightclothes pressed against her.

He had never apologized more, trying to pull himself away from the hug, only to be brought back in with both her arms.  Through all his sobbing, he still managed to hear a faint whisper from the woman he looked up to like she could control the galaxy with one strand of her hair.

“I knew your mother well enough to know she would be proud of you, and she’d want me to guarantee you will never be that close to my son ever again.” The way she spoke managed to shake as well, as she obviously tried to keep the sadness out of her own tone.  “I can’t promise you that you’ll never be that close again, but I can promise I will undo any damage he has done.  This was all my fault sending you out there, and I’ll fix it even if it digs my grave.”

The words sent lightning through Poe’s mind, his hands tightening on her jacket as the crying continued.  He felt safe in her arms, like the mother he wished he could remember, like the mother he always wanted.

And, by the stars, in that moment he swore he could feel another woman hugging him from behind.  Probably a force-based projection on Leia’s part, but it felt so real…  Once the tears had stopped, and Leia’s grip loosened, she guided him herself back to his quarters.

  
Poe had never slept better than the rest of that night, knowing that his General, his foster mother, would protect him from anything.  Even nightmares.

**Author's Note:**

> It started off kinda sad, but I guess it gets better. I was fascinated seeing some of the Shara/Leia dynamic so I thought "hell, bring on the gal pals" but in a cute fluffy maternal way


End file.
